brave new world
by ember53608
Summary: the sky is painted like metal when she first meets him. she thinks it's a sign.


A little something I wrote earlier in the fall for a friend. Warning: the transition from hella cute to hella angsty is mighty quick.

As always, read and review, please!

* * *

The sky is painted like metal when she first meets him. She thinks it's a sign.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" He comes up from behind, scrolls stuffed into the crook of his arm, glasses pushed to the bridge of his nose. Su snatches a glance at him from out of the corner of her eye, gaze centered on the valley spread out before her. A curly lock of hair dangles over his forehead. She thinks it's kind of cute.

"It'll look even better when we're done with it," she says smoothly, walking past curlicue boy to address the rest of his crew. She notices his eyes dangle on the curve of her lips, and for extra measure, she lets the tips of her hair brush his face when she struts by. He stares after her in wonder while she talks big-city plans, arms stretched wide as she sculpts metal.

The miniature domes she forms in her hands are still rough at the edges, but he comes up behind her again and points out the fixer-upper spots with a pointed finger and quiet, calculated words. She pays attention and tries not to breathe while he gestures over her shoulder, temporarily lost in mathematics and not her lips or her hair. He smells nice. Like paper.

"What did you say your name was, again?" she interrupts, stopping his speech on foundations. He blinks back, surprised at how close her face is, but not unpleased. The way she smiles makes the skin about her eyes crinkle. Toph has always said it's her winning feature. Curlicue boy would probably agree.

"Baatar," he says, stretching out a hand. She takes it.

"My name is Baatar."

{...}

She shows up at his door like her family does for Sunday night dinners: in a white t-shirt and cargo pants, hair pinned back with one or two bobby pins, feet totally bare. Lin smooths down her clothes, ruffled from the running it takes to get from her house to Air Temple Island. Her arms ache a little from building the bridge to the island so fast, and she steadies herself on the door frame. His hand touches her face, and she looks up.

"Are you okay?" he asks, forehead creasing, wrinkling the arrow painted onto his forehead. She lets him hold her for a while - until his hand grows warm on her face - and then she pushes past and into the interior of his room, murmuring, "I'm fine." Her arms cross defensively across her chest, and she finds a point on the wall to stare at.

He sighs, running a hand down his face. Traces of a shaved beard are still evident on the skin of his chin, and he stops his fingers at the stubble. Turning to Lin, he asks, "I was just going to get dinner. Did you want something?"

"Anything's fine," she answers distractedly, eyes still fixated on the picture of them that hangs on the wall. It frays and blurs at the edges, but the part where his arm wraps around the small of her back is still clear, and she smiles a little, albeit tiredly. "Tell your mom, thanks." He nods silently and starts to walk out of the room.

"And Tenzin?" she adds. His face comes back to the doorway, and her throat starts to hurt. She twiddles her thumbs and continues to stare hard at the photograph, trying failingly to ingrain the gesture into the lines of her memory. "Would you mind if I. . . Would you mind if I stayed the night?"

"No. Stay all you want."

The words ring in her ears like metal on metal, and she whips her head around, hair flying about her face, eyes stretched wide. She'll kill him for saying that, she will. The bend of his arm has already vanished from her memory. Her feet turn full circle.

He's gone.

{...}

Toph does not think she'll ever see him again after the "kitchen fight".

That day, he learns things from a bird chirping at his ear, and takes his questions to her. She breaks, and asks him to leave, which he does. They only ever see each other on business, and when Lin and Su ask her where Uncle has gone, she does not answer but looks straight ahead, losing herself in foggy memory.

"He doesn't have much time," Katara whispers to her as she steps inside the tent, flecks of snow dotting her parka. He lies on the ground under a blanket that Tenzin's fiance, Pema, put together from Appa's falling hair. His face is still flat and angular, hair not a shade past deep, deep brown. The lines set in his skin, Toph knows, are permanent, but that doesn't stop her from sitting beside him and giving him last minute company.

"You came," he breathes, smiling wanly. She returns the gesture, lips curving slightly upward. Katara stands just outside, close enough to make sure they're okay, but far enough not to hear any words between them. Toph bites her lip, no longer sure of how to start conversations. As always, he does the talking for her.

"Hey, Toph?" he asks, and her breath hitches in her throat. A part of him melts away with those words; she can feel it in his blood, in his iron, and she struggles to keep her lips in a thin line. "Hey, what?" she answers. Her voice is hoarse. He turns to look her in the eye.

"You still in love with me?"

Silence.

She wishes her daughters were here. Maybe then he would never have to ask. A part of her, though, has been sure - since the day "kitchen fight" existed in her vocabulary - that he intended to ask before he died. After all, here they are now, sitting at his deathbed, his haunting question piercing the arctic atmosphere. Toph smiles and touches his hand. His heart rate flutters.

"What do you think, Sokka?"

They're the last words he hears.

* * *

The "kitchen fight" is part of a headcanon I have where, due to the events of a mini-war of sorts, Toph is left without a husband and Sokka without a fiance (Suki). Shit (that I haven't yet worked out) happens, and Sokka ends up living with Toph and Lin not only to help them make ends meet, but also because he cares for the two girls. Eventually, Toph becomes pregnant with Su, which largely upsets her, because - as much as she does love Sokka - she feels like she's betraying Suki. She lives with it for a year or so, but the guilt turns out to be too much for her to handle, and she kicks Sokka out after the events of a "kitchen fight". Their pre-semi-marital lives resume, but with many awkward feelings on both sides.

As to whether I'll ever write this, who knows. Thanks for reading!


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